News

Funding for more school places

EXTRA Government funding has been announced for schools in South Shropshire.

This follows lobbying of the Government that has been treating schools in rural areas differently and less generously than those in urban locations.

Ludlow MP Philip Dunne has welcomed news of an extra £2.35 billion announced by the Government to create more school places.

This is in addition to the £5 billion already being spent in this parliament.

It means that between 2014 and 2017 schools in Shropshire will receive £4 million, as part of the Government’s long-term plans.

This is the first time that councils have had three year allocations of funding to spend on school places.

It should make it easier for Shropshire Council to plan ahead and ensure that there are enough school places to go around.

“This Government has already created 260,000 new school places and this announcement means thousands more are on the way,” said Philip Dunne.

“The last Labour government ignored the fact that rising birth rates nationally meant we will need thousands more school places in the coming years, and did nothing to prepare.

“It is great news for young people in the Ludlow constituency that this Government has found substantial extra funding to ensure every child has a place at school so that they can fulfil their potential.

“This is part of our long-term plan to create an education system that gives young people who want to work hard the skills they need to get on in life and have a more secure and better future.”

The additional funding was announced at the same time that the Government had pledged to cut the deficit in this parliament revealed that the job is only half done.

It has announced that there will be further major cuts to the welfare budget that will cause concern to groups like Churches Together Around Ludlow that is working to help people facing severe poverty.

Charitable groups in both Ludlow and Tenbury have revealed a marked increase in the number of people requiring food parcels to be able to feed themselves.

A new scheme is to be launched in 2014 involving the Grow Cook and Share scheme to help people in severe financial difficulty to manage budgets and eat healthy food.